Re: [Matplotlib-users] Candlestick Issues

[John H. <jdh...@ac...>]

>>>>> "Daisy" == Daisy Fuentes <eli...@ya...> writes:

    Daisy> I was looking at the example located @
    Daisy> http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/screenshots/finance_work2.py
    Daisy> and was wondering if it's possible to color the candlestick
    Daisy> boxes so that the candlestick wicks are not visible through
    Daisy> them. 

Yes, the alpha argument to the candlestick plot controls the
transparency.  alpha is the traditional name for the transparency
level, so look for it in documentation strings, eg in 

http://matplotlib.sf.net/matplotlib.finance.html#-candlestick

    Daisy> Additionally, is it possible to have a candlestick
    Daisy> that's not just a plain line when the open and the close
    Daisy> prices are the same. Would it be possible to add a
    Daisy> horizontal tick mark?
    Daisy> |
    Daisy> |
    Daisy> -
    Daisy> |
    Daisy> |
    
You can add these marks fairly easily yourself by adding an additional
plot command, and using the marker style TICKLEFT or TICKRIGHT.  In
other words, you can plot any kind of line you want more or less.  The
candlestick method may not support it directly, but it is easy to
overlay.  We should probably add a marker style TICKCENTERX for this
kind of marker, and better add TICKCENTERY for symmetry.  It's only a
few lines of code that need to be added to the lines.py module.

    Daisy> Also, I noticed that the simple moving average is
    Daisy> calculated based on the price open instead of price close.

I'm not attempting to make a financially meaningful plot, but to
illustrate plotting techniques.  You are free to do moving averages
over open, close, average or random data.  As I note in the
finance_work screenshot text

  Some of the data in the plot, are real financial data, some are
  random traces that I used since the goal was to illustrate plotting
  techniques, not market analysis!

Hope this helps,
JDH